Lab Tests/hormone test

I recently had my male hormone test and while everything is in the normal range my estrogen seems to be getting higher and my free T is on the low end. Total T is fine. Any suggestions on how i can reduce my estrogen to mid/low range? right now its 2 points away from being elevated. I am 40 and in otherwise good health

thanks

Russ

ANSWER: Russ-

Due to the fact that we have excess estrogens in our food and water supply I am not surprised you have nearly elevated estrogen levels. I would recommend trying a supplement called Indol-3-Carbanol. This is a concentrated compound found in cabbage and broccoli that will help your body detoxify and metabolize out excess estrogens. I typically recommend this product by the brand NOW as theirs is a 200mg per capsule dose and is more of a clinical strength product. This is safe for men and women alike to take and would be a good place to start.

Dr. Kalli Prater
www.relaxattranquility.com

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QUESTION: Thank you Dr. Prater. I actually tried some I3C but it gave me a very bad headache so I picked up some DIM which is the active form and i seem to tolerate that a bit better. Are these supplements considered safe for men long term?

Best Regards,

Russ

ANSWER: The DIM and or Calcium D-glucorate should both be fine over the long term, but should not be necessary over the long term. I would start asking why estrogen has been elevated. Are you drinking out of soft plastic water bottles a lot? Do you consume conventional dairy? Do you eat a lot of Soy? (soy milk, so protein ect)

Another option is to talk to your physician about possibly doing something that is testosterone promoting such as Tribulus extract or possibly low dose DHEA which metabolizes into other hormones.

Also, keep in mind that as you age testosterone does drop. Also if your body has a hard time metabolizing certain things, your body could be creating the estrogen instead of testosterone. Like with your I3C complaint- I would also wonder if you have a methylation issue in the liver? MTHFR genetic defects are getting more buzz and would point to a number of health issues in people, and from all the reading I do does contribute to hormonal imbalances. Just something to think about or talk about, easily treated with methylated folic acid and methylated b12 supplements, but effects more of your body's metabolism than you think.

Dr. Kalli Prater

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QUESTION: Hi Dr. Prater- I really appreciate all of your feedback! To answer your questions no I do not consume any dairy or gluten. I was drinking bottled water quite regularly for years but decided to scale back on that. I started distilling my home water and switched to glass bottled mineral water. I travel a lot for work so its challenging to not drink plastic bottled water but I will certainly try. My doctor feels that I may have excess DHEA which is concerting to estrogen instead of testosterone. DO you agree with this? He recommended a product called Aroma Reduct 222 to optimize my estrogen/DHEA conversion. Only thing is this formula contains 8-prenylnaringenin which is a very potent estrogen so im not sure if its safe for men to take that. Any thoughts? I do take methyl B12 losenges every few days as well as TMG on occasion so I should be well methylated...I also eat a lot of beets :) ANy additional feedback would be appreciated. and thank you again!

Regards,

Russ

AnswerThe thought behind taking the Aroma Reduct 222 would be that the estrogen structure would bind to your estrogen hormone receptor sites so that you body is aware that your all topped out on estrogens and make more testosterone. Its also going to take the place so that any xenoestrogens say from plastics or products will not be able to sit in those receptor sites as well. That's the theory with estrogen dominance in females too, despite the estrogen overload you give some phytoestrogens that look like but don't act like estrogens so your body can get rid of the bad stuff. Also looking at the structure it's similar to Estradiol which is the weakest of the estrogens and least harmful, in fact I have supplemented some women with this estrogen because it's mild in action and has some very positive effects, without jacking up estrogens overall.

It's nice to see questions from someone who has clearly done their homework and is doing so many of the right things! Best of luck Russ!!

Expertise

I can answer questions about routine lab work, functional lab ranges for optimal health, what lab tests should be considered and when you need to seek a second opinion. I can also answer questions about specialty testing like: stool testing, hormone testing, and saliva testing.

Experience

I run lab tests in my office as a functional medicine practitioner and use functional lab ranges looking for patient's optimal health not their disease. I review many charts and labs and look at trends through the years as well as current symptoms. Usually I find more things on labs that the traditional doctor that correlate to the patient's concerns/issues.